That Day
by Mary Jane Elle Jay
Summary: A year is a long time and so many things can happen in a year, but one thing you can be sure of is that after a year things will never be the same, this is something that took Captain Jack till That Day to realise. Set after CBP but before DMC.
1. All He Knew

**Prologue – That Day**

Jack was standing beside the Pearl as he waited for the crew to return. He had said that he was leaving today at 12pm sharp, meaning that the code would apply. Anyone who wasn't there then would be left behind. So how come he was still waiting for even one member of the crew to return at half past twelve.

He could hardly leave without any of them. Sure, he was a master of the waves, but that didn't mean he could crew the ship on his own. He stared down the jetty, which looked straight down the main road in Tortuga. A long way off he saw Will and Elizabeth leaving an inn, the rest of the crew were following them. Before he even thought about why they were so late in leaving, he knew.

He knew that something was wrong, without seeing the looks on their faces. He knew that the last year had changed them. He knew that he couldn't change what had happened, what was happening. He had no reason to change the events of the year, they had changed him and the crew for the better; but he wanted to stop this, what was happening before his eyes. He knew that this would have a greater effect on the Pearl and its crew than any treasure ever could, not even gold from the Isla de Muerta had changed them as much as this would, but then he had to remind himself that not all treasure was gold and silver.

It hadn't surprised him. He had a feeling that it wouldn't last and that they would leave the harbour today with a few members of crew less. He just didn't think that it would happen so soon. He had no idea that today they would leave and nothing he did would be able to stop it. He didn't want it to happen now, but he knew it would have to happen soon.

As they left the harbour, he knew that the time had changed. That the crew had changed. That the Pearl had changed. And he knew most of all, that he had changed, and that things would never be the same...


	2. The Storm

**A year from That Day - The Storm**

She had been ordered into the captain's cabin just after the storm began. She hadn't wanted to and normally she was the most stubborn girl in the whole of Port Royal, but in the last few weeks her whole attitude had changed. The ship makers had been glad to see her at the jetty that morning she usually came down everyday but they hadn't seen her for three weeks and were beginning to get worried. They knew why she hadn't been there; they were about the only ones who knew why she had changed. Normally she was a stubborn tomboy who wouldn't have dreamed of going back to England. Now, however, she felt like she had no choice but to return to her birthplace. The ship wasn't completely full in fact it was rather empty compared to some she had seen leaving the jetties in Port Royal to go to England. She was the only girl on board; everyone else was a lot older than herself, and because of this the captain thought it would be better if she wasn't on deck during the storm.

She sat in one of the chairs that looked out through the many paned windows over the raging sea. She loved storms and wanted to be up on deck and part of it so much. However, something about this storm unsettled her. It wasn't the same as others she had been in and although she wasn't normally afraid of storms, she hugged her small bag, which contained her only possessions, closer to her body. Her face was lit up as lightning struck near the ship. She noticed how the swells of the waves began to get higher and higher. Her fear kept growing and suddenly a memory of a song awoke inside her head, "Sing out this song, when you're afraid..." That was all she could remember of the words even though she knew that it was a lot longer and that her father used to have many different verses for it. A tear began to roll down her face at that thought.

Suddenly the ship was pulled around by the waves much more violently. Before she knew what was going on she felt herself being pulled closer to the windows, which no longer looked out across the sea but were instead facing into it. The glass in the windows shattered and she was surrounded by water. She struggled to reach the surface then remembered that the ship was coming down on top of her and so changed her course so that she swam out of the room through the now broken windows. It seemed like hours to get to the surface though it was only moments. In the distance she saw a ship although it was approaching fast. "If I can keep my head above the water just till they see me" she thought to herself and struggled to take herself further from the sinking ship. She wasn't a swimmer her father had taught her how to swim a bit in the bay at Port Royal, just so that she wouldn't reach the same fate as her mother but the water in the bay was nothing like this. By the time the ship passed her she was barely able to keep herself up and soon she felt herself slip away from the surface and from consciousness.

* * *

Will was leaning out over the edge of the ship, looking into the storm, it seemed ironic that this was where he felt he could spend some quiet time to think, right in the middle of one of the worst storms he had ever seen at sea. He just needed to get away from the rest of the men and think about life. It was almost a year since he and Elizabeth had joined the ship and he loved the pirates' life, all apart from the fact that you never seem to get any time to yourself. The wind and rain had been raging for many hours and Jack had sent the majority of the crew to rest. The only ones on deck now, apart from Will, were those whose shift it was and of course Jack. A flash of lightning lit up the sky and near the Black Pearl, Will saw a wreck of a boat similar to those which carried passengers between Port Royal and England. A crash of thunder followed and Will's gaze turned towards the sea directly below him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a girl in the water struggling to keep her head up. She couldn't have been much more than 16 or 17 and there was no doubt that she was caught in the Pearl's drift.

"Jack!" he shouted, "There's a woman in the water, looks like she is from the wrecked ship. She seems to be caught in the ship's drift"

Jack answered him continually looking out towards the sea ahead, "And what do you expect me to do about it Will?" A flash of lightning lit up Jack's silhouette, Will tried to make himself heard again,

"Well aren't we going to try and save her?" Will shouted

Jack turned to face him keeping the wheel strong, "Young William please can you give me one good reason why I should rescue a woman who is silly enough to caught in the drift of the black pearl, in the middle of a storm, who is by no means a pirate and who if I do rescue her will probably be ungrateful or die. Also consider the fact I am not a member of the royal navy therefore have no obligation to rescue her; neither am I an honest man who would do the right thing at an opportunity like this. I am a pirate and this is one of those moments which I like to wave at as they pass by." He said to his friend who seemed to be getting more and more disgusted at each word he had just said. The Captain looked back out to sea trying to steer the ship safely through this dreadful storm.

Will looked back over the rail to see the girl struggling to keep her head above the water. He noticed that she had a bag over her shoulder, which seemed to have the neck of a bottle protruding from it. He had an answer for the captain and more than one good reason for the man who deep inside did have a good streak. "You want a reason Jack? For one thing it's not a woman, but in fact a girl. For a second thing she has just gone under and doesn't seem to be making an effort to resurface. For a third she looks rich and is carrying a bag, no doubt full of gold. And for one last thing she's got rum with her." He shouted in an effort to be heard by the captain over the sound of the sea. He knew what Jack's reply would be, due to the fact that he had been preparing for a trip into the sea ever since he heard Will's first reason but Jack, being Jack, would probably pretend it was the offer of rum and gold that sent him to the rescue.

"Well why didn't you say so before?" Jack called back as he handed over the wheel and dove over the edge of the ship to have many of the crew on deck rush to see where their captain had just plummeted.

Will ran down the stairs to the lower deck ready to send out a line to Jack when he returned. The Captain wasn't one to let a child get hurt because of his actions, Will even knew that the Captain wouldn't have left a woman down there either; after all, he had helped Will to rescue Elizabeth. Admittedly Jack did have an ulterior motive then, to regain possession of the Pearl; but no doubt even without that he would have helped. Will knew Jack's character well enough now to realise he wasn't as black as he was painted.

* * *

Jack struck the water and kept swimming down till he could reach the girl. Once he had got her he struggled against the ships drift to get both of them back to the surface and once he had done that he battled against the waves. As he reached for the rope that the crew had sent out the girls bag was pushed off of her shoulder by the waves. When Jack saw this he tied the rope around the girls waist and went back into the sea to get the bag with the promise of rum and money. The crew hauled in the girl's body and Will carried her from the edge of the ship to nearer the mast then began to try and resuscitate her. He was leaning over her when she came to spluttering to get rid of the water from her lungs.

She coughed and began, "Where am I?"

Will answered her as none of the other crew seemed willing to, "You're aboard the black pearl" the girl confused by this and still coughing realised as she looked around at the crew,

"You're pirates? What happened to my bag? You've stolen it haven't you?"

"Don't worry your little heart about that, it's right here" Jack called over the storm as he climbed back on board the ship. "Now we'll be needing to know your name if we're going to keep you aboard." The girl was overawed by the strangeness of his appearance his hair was long but a mismatch of braids, dreadlocks and ordinary hair with many charms decorating it.

"Well Missy?" Gibbs asked when a sufficient amount of time had passed.

"Cara... My name's Cara"

"Will, I think you would do well to take Cara to my cabin," Jack began. However, Cara had at this point realised that she was finding it very hard to concentrate on things everything kept going blurry and subsequently she was lost into the world of sleep not hearing the remainder of the conversation. "And I think it would be a good idea if you got her into some dry clothes there's bound to be some spare ones. She can have my cabin tonight, it makes no sense waking up 'Lizbeth or Anamaria. Keep an eye on her Will, savvy?" he finished off, unaware that Cara was asleep.

"All right Jack" Will said, as Jack began walking away.

"Captain Jack" the captain called behind him.

Will was slightly disgruntled but also glad that he had something to do without the rest of the crew around. He picked up the girl with surprising ease and carried her smoothly into the Captain's cabin, where he found her some spare clothes, which looked like they might just fit. Throughout all of this Cara lay softly sleeping.


	3. You Can Call Me Will

**365 Days from That Day - You Can Call Me Will**

Cara awoke the next morning lying in a bed that she didn't recognise and wearing something that definitely wasn't her familiar dress. She raised herself up on her arms to discover she was wearing an extremely large shirt with an open collar. It felt like it came down over knees, it was so big on her. She ran a hand through her red hair that usually came down below her shoulders. It was stiff from the seawater and had been tied roughly with a piece of string.

"Morning Cara"

Cara jumped as she heard a voice come from across the room she turned and saw the person who revived her last night, sitting at one of the chairs in the cabin which, she thought had to be the captains.

"Good morning" she said hesitantly "I don't really remember much of what happened last night. Could you explain to me where I am and what happened?"

She got up and began to cough and splutter but carried on towards a chair opposite the man. She had no idea whether or not she could trust him, but she had a feeling that even if she couldn't, she didn't stand much chance of getting away.

Will looked at the young girl, her bright green eyes startled him, in the darkness of night he had not been able to see them clearly, it struck him that her appearance would probably have a similar effect on all the others on the ship. Eventually dragging his attention away from how Cara looked, he began to explain the events of the previous night to her.

"So you mean to say I am on board the notorious Black Pearl? So why did you save me? You're pirates!" she answered after the story had been told; she had begun to shiver but was sure that it wasn't that cold.

"_I_ didn't save you and I don't really know why Jack did either I just pointed out the fact, that there was a girl in the water, to him" Will tried to say calmly, he began to chuckle at how it had actually happened but then he saw that Cara had begun to shiver and he left the chair to find a blanket.

"But you must know why you're the captain you give the commands!" she continued, getting slightly annoyed with pirates and their whole attitude. A long silence followed, which, Cara eventually broke, "Aren't you?"

Will had found a blanket and put it around her shoulders before answering, "No I'm not the captain. I'm Will Turner but the crew usually call me Bootstrap or Bill due to an unfortunate family resemblance and Jack for some reason calls me Young William. But you can call me Will." Cara had laughed when he told her about being called Young William; he wasn't really young.

"So who is the captain?" Cara asked uncertainly, "And what do you do?"

"Jack is the captain - the person who rescued you and retrieved your bag. I am actually a blacksmith from Port Royal not really a pirate, but I am here for the ride it seems and have been for the last year. Most people think of me as being the first mate, I don't know why. Gibbs has that honour. Besides I'm not a good enough sailor, but I don't really have a specific position. The Captain still seems to think I am a blacksmith even though it is slightly difficult to do any work on board a ship"

Cara took a few moments to think about this and then suddenly realised, "Where's my bag?"

"It's over here" Will said calmly, pointing out the bag on the floor beside him. Cara pounced on it at once and began to scramble through its contents. The blanket had eased her shivering but now it was left on the chair she began to feel extremely cold again. She would go back to the chair as soon as she found what she was looking for she told herself. Cara already knew though that if she hadn't found it by now it wouldn't be there. Will had watched her go through all of the things in the bag and saw that Cara's face had crumpled he knelt down beside her and brought the blanket down off of the chair and put it round her. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her even though he had no idea why she was upset.

"I had to go through it, to check if there were any dry clothes in there for you. I hope you don't mind." he paused wondering whether he would get a reply, when none followed he continued,

"I found a rather good flute in there." Cara turned to him at this, "The water had leaked into the box it was in and I didn't want the metal to get damaged as there are so few in the area like it. I dried it up a bit and then left it on the table over there. I'll check on it again later to make sure it's not damaged too much but I think it may be best if I leave it for a while."

Cara had listened to all of this intently just to make sure that it was still fine. The flute had been one of the few things she wouldn't leave anywhere. She couldn't live without it, especially over the past month. She had been able to hide herself in her music everyone kept saying "How terrible all this business is, I'm surprised you're still coping on your own". No one could understand why she didn't cry; some people thought she was just heartless the truth was she didn't want them to see her cry, to see her not coping. She had to cope and the music was the only way she had, showing her emotions through her flute playing rather than letting people see how much she couldn't cope on her own. In a way it had saved her and she couldn't bear to lose something that important to her so soon after...No she would not think about it she assured herself it would only cause her to drop the barrier that she had kept in place to stop seeing how she really felt.

Will saw her become happier throughout his words and finally realised that the flute on the table was the reason why she had been upset.

"I didn't mean to make it seem as though you lost it," he began "I know that flutes are difficult to make I have only seen one made but that was about ten years ago in port royal. I always wondered how the mechanisms worked but I didn't get the chance to look at it for long back then."

"You can look..." At this point Cara began to cough violently, she had been coughing all the way through their conversation but it was a lot worse now.

"Hey, you had better get back to bed, I have a feeling that being in the water too long has made you ill. Too bad for Jack, he was hoping to get his cabin back today, I'll tell him that your too ill to be moved." Will smiled at Cara as he helped her to her feet and into the bed. After the coughing subsided Cara began to speak again, "Thanks Will", after that she began to drift into a peaceful sleep.

Will watched her from the chair. She looked so helpless as she slept. "She can hardly be any more than a child, and now here she is stuck on a ship full of pirates. She doesn't deserve to be here," he thought to himself. He now began to realise that he had begun to care about her, even though he hardly knew her. Their short conversation had been enough; enough to realise that she couldn't look after herself on her own, at least not on this ship, and enough for him to decide that he would look out for her, like a brother would look out for a sister.

* * *

A/N: Hey people I would really like suggestions in case you think there is anything else you want to know about Cara, i can't guarantee that i will put in everything but i would like to know because i want the next chapter to be the last one for introducing her as a character, after that we go deeper into story YAY! 

Anyway review!


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